


Earth 33: Outlaws - Playdate

by JayEclipse



Series: Earth 33: Outlaws - Snippets [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Blue Devil (DCU Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Zatanna (Comics)
Genre: A Ice Bucket Is Set On Fire, Also A Cleaning Cart Is Crashed, And That Folks Is Why You Don't Leave Superkids Without Supervision, Cute, Cute Kids, Fluff, Gen, Hotels, Mischief, Playdates, Theses Three Act Like Fools, trouble making kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 17:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20586200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayEclipse/pseuds/JayEclipse
Summary: Batman believes Robin could use more friends, he isn't really close with anyone at school and Gotham lacks anyone his age in the hero game. Luckily fellow hero Blue Devil also has a fairly friendless sidekick and could use some help with something down in LA. But when the two sidekicks get back from their adventure they find the adults missing and another kid, hijinks ensue.





	Earth 33: Outlaws - Playdate

**Author's Note:**

> This took forever to write, it also got a lot longer than it was suppose to but i guess that's the way the cookie crumbles.
> 
> Also no beta reading, we die like men.
> 
> Also heads up a character mentions being nauseous twice but no one throws up

The idea that he didn’t have enough friends was frankly, offensive. He hung around other students at free period, and sure none of them ever invited him over nor did he invite them over to the manor, even though he was sure Alfred would be thrilled to keep an eye on them and clean up afterwards if it meant he didn’t just hang around the manor alone for a little while. Okay he had to admit that maybe his school connections weren’t the closest but there were the other batfamily members! Like Dick who did make time for their phone calls and was there for him, not physically though since he was with the teen titans, well there was also Barbara and her… Okay honestly they weren’t the closest.

Ughhh dammit he was kinda lonely, wasn't he? He looked out the window of the batjet trying to figure out if he forgot anyone and could make a truthful argument that he wasn’t lonely, not even because he didn’t want to meet a fellow sidekick, he was actually pretty excited about that part, and getting to go somewhere sunny thanks to Blue Devil and his sidekick Kid Devil basing out of LA. He just didn’t want Bruce to worry about him, and he knew there was already a million other things he worried about, that was just part of the deal of taking a kid from crime alley in, and Jason knew there wasn’t anywhere he could ship the baggage off to, it just had to stay by the door to be unpacked slowly, like it was fine china.

He had to wonder what a sidekick with probably a far less messed up history, and such a sunny place to work out of, because face it, working out of gloomy Gotham would have an impact on anyone, would be like? Hopefully not too much more reckless, he already had that covered in spades he had been told, and it would really suck if Batman and Blue Devil had to rescue them from the clutches of Polka-Dot Man. He would never be able to live it down, even just thinking of the idea had his cheeks go pink from embarrassment, he quickly glanced at Bruce who thankfully was focused on landing the jet. The last thing he needed was to explain he was worried about fighting Polka-Dot Man, what kind of sidekick worried about that? Him apparently.

The loading area behind a 4.5 star hotel seemed like a strange meeting place, but apparently Bruce and Blue Devil were meeting with Zatanna to talk about a case and she was staying in the hotel, so it just worked out best. Blue Devil looked just like he did on the old movie poster Jason had lifted off of the side of a movie theater, kinda badass but also down to earth in a way that was hard to place. Kid Devil who was rocking back and forth on his heels, looked like a complete dork, the little horns and tail were just too much in his opinion.

“They’re here!” Kid Devil pointed at them as they approached.

Blue Devil who had been facing the other way turned around and stepped over to Batman and shook his hand, “Glad you could come by,”

Batman raised an eyebrow, and lightheartedly asked “Why wouldn’t i?”

Blue Devil let out a chuckle and answered, “You bats aren’t really know for coming to sunny California,”

They continued to chat meanwhile Kid Devil basically ran over to Robin and extended his hand in an almost exaggerated manner, a big grin on his face “I’m Ed- Kid Devil, nice to meet you!”

Robin looked at him for a moment before shaking his hand “Robin, nice to meet you too. Gotta ask, are you always so... Excited or is it just when meeting Batman and Robin behind a hotel?”

He put his finger to his mouth thinking for a moment before answering, “Yeah pretty sure i’m just always this upbeat!”

They two could hear Blue Devil chuckle in the background and then turn back to Batman and begin explaining something, probably why his sidekick was so energetic.

Kid Devil turned back to Robin, “I’m really looking forward to kicking butt with you! There aren’t a lot of kids my age around here that fight crime,” he mumbled under his breath “And blue doesn’t let me help with his stuff often.” 

Robin raised an eyebrow, “Why doesn’t he?”

Kid Devil’s grin faltered into a still somewhat happy looking neutral expression, Robin had to wonder if the guy was capable of frowning, he started rubbing his arm and his eyes lingered off to the side, “He thinks it’s dangerous or something, but the worst injury I've gotten was after crashing my bike on the front door of the workshop, and that was completely out of costume.”

Robin had to wonder if Kid Devil realized why that was his worst injury was because Blue Devil kept him away from the dangerous missions, but wasn’t going to bring it up. Nothing kills the mood for a hang out (as he insisted it was not a playdate like how Batman said it was) like telling the other kid maybe the adult is right. “That sucks, Batman lets me jump around on the roofs of buildings, and trust me, it's not as easy as it looks.”

Kid Devil giggled, “Do ever worry about falling?”

“Ehhh, I used to, but this-” He pulled out the grappling hook, “-helps with that fear a lot, besides I'm way better at parkour than I was when I started.”

“Could you show me how to do parkour? I mean this thing-” he grabbed a weird looking trident that was left on the curb on the loading dock, “-can fly so practically I don’t need to know, but it would be really really cool!”

Robin smiled at him, “Yeah sure, I'll show you a few tricks while we’re looking for Polka-Dot Man,”

He rubbed the side of his face, “That’s not gonna be a lot of time, because maybe this is just me trying to find Polka-Dot Man sounds like trying to find an orange in a empty parking lot.”

Robin chuckled, “We can take the scenic route back here once we’re done with him.”

“Awesome!” Kid Devil did a fist pump.

Man, here Jason was thinking Dick was energetic, and for Gotham city, he was. But LA was a lot less grim, maybe cause of the sun or the sea. Or the shine of Hollywood, Jason honestly wasn’t sure.

Batman and Blue Devil walked over to the two, having finished their chat. Blue Devil put his hands on his hips, “Well we’re heading to Zatanna’s room, you two have fun and be careful, once you’re done come up to room 503.”

“If you run into any trouble, Robin remember you have a communicator on you, we’re only a call away.” Batman added.

“We’ll be fine,” Robin rolled his eyes under his mask and waved the idea that there’d be any trouble away, “It’s only Polka-Dot Man, if we can’t deal with him i think we would have been out of the biz a while ago.”

Blue Devil sighed for some reason Robin couldn’t figure out. Eh, probably no reason, people sigh sometimes. He then turned to Batman, “Well I'm going round front, guessing you aren’t going to be using the elevator with me?”

Batman shook his head and walked off, probably in the direction of the window for the room.

“Can he not use doors?” 

Robin shook his head, “No, he can. He just prefers the window, I mean have you ever heard of a bat flying in through a door?”

“No… But he’s not a bat, he’s a man.”

“A Batman.”

“Wait is he a vampire? He has been squinting a lot, and sticking to the shadows!” Kid Devil had the face of Newton when he realized why the apple hit him.

Robin frantically shook his head “No! He’s just a night owl,”

“Have you ever seen him eat?” 

“Yeah, not a lot but that’s cause he doesn’t eat at the dinner table.”

“Where does he eat?” Kid Devil raised an eyebrow.

“We should get moving, we have a criminal to catch,” He was trying to change the topic from if his adopted dad was a vampire and onto the thing they were meant to be doing. Like the kid that diverted a conversation from the fact their parents's a teacher by suggesting they do chores together.

“Oh yeah right!” He mounted the trident like how a five year old mounts those toy horse stick things. “Hop on!”

Robin was apprehensive to ‘hop on’ like Kid Devil suggested. The thing looked barely safe for one person, let alone two. “Uh, are you sure it can carry both of us?”

“Yup! Tell me you aren’t scared or something?” Kid Devil teased.

“No way,” He climbed on. 

And the moment they were off the ground he was screaming, he was fine in the jet but he wasn’t having the wind whip in his fac- Eww a bug just smacked in his face. How the frick did Kid Devil do this so calmly???

“Wooo!”

“AHHHHH!”

Kid Devil turned his head to face Robin with a look of concern, “Are you okay?”

Robin frantically shook his head, he felt nauseous, oh lord he wanted down. He looked down and oh god that was a mistake, he was fine when there was something to hook on to if he fell but they were nowhere near downtown LA. “I’m gonna throw up,” He managed to say in between the screaming.

“Okay okay we’re going down.”

The moment they were on the group Robin got off the flying trident from hell and gave the sidewalk a kiss, “Sweet sweet ground i’m never leaving you again!”

Kid Devil crouched down and patted him on the back, “Be glad we’re in a good part of town, if we were in Skid Row you would have probably just gotten some sort of disease.”

Robin sat down to catch his breath, “No need to tell me that, I lived in the Gotham equivalent before Bats took me in.”

Kid Devils eyes were wide with surprise, “Really?”

He nodded, “Yeah, can’t say it was fun or that it’s something fun to talk about..” He hated talking about it with anyone frankly, they all tried to be understanding and empathize but the only person he felt actually understood was Leslie Thompkins.

“Alright let’s change the topic! So where does Batman eat?” Kid Devil offer Robin a hand up, a hand Robin took.

He groaned and answered, “A cave…”

“He’s totally a vampire.”

The two continued to debate the topic as they tracked down Polka-Dot Man, took out his, like, three goons, and then punched him in the face and dragged his butt over to the police station. And then even continued as they entered the hotel, waited for the elevator since some other kid had just closed it as they had got into the entrance, went up and waited for someone to answer the door after Robin had knocked.

There was a strange lack of any response. Like there was no one in the room.

“Do you think we should knock again?”

Robin shrugged, and then Kid Devil proceeded to knock on the door continuously.

After a moment it was opened. Not by any of the adults they had been expecting but some kid with messy, slightly curly black hair and a rabbit themed t-shirt and a blankly confused expression. “Uhhhhh”

“Ummm”

“Who are you?” Robin asked trying to take a peek behind the boy as he waited for a response.

“Zach,” He paused and then presumably realized that was not identifiable at all, “I’m Zatanna's cousin.”

“Where is Blue Devil and the others?” Kid Devil wasn’t being rude and trying to get around Zach, but instead just acted like a normal person in a conversation. 

Zach shrugged, “Uhh, no clue. I’m kinda hoping you two could help clear that up?”

He finally moved out of the door frame letting the other two get a good look at the hotel room. It was high class, had one of those tubs with the jets in them and a bathrobe left on the steps to it. But it also smelled of… those gunpowder poppers you could throw on the ground to make a sound and fire and there were scorch marks on the floor. There were no signs of a fight or struggle but the other things left behind didn’t paint the most optimistic picture.

Robin turned to Zach while Kid Devil just gawked at the room and checked under the beds. “Did you see or hear anything Zach?”

Zach covered his mouth as he thought for a moment, “I was down in the dining room, Zee told me she didn’t want me at her meeting cause there’d be important people and…. Oh my gosh she was meeting with Batman wasn’t she?!”

Robin nodded, “Uh yeah she was, but that’s not the most relevant thing at the moment, you can bother her about it once we know where she and the others are.”

“That’s just so cool.. Man I've got the coolest cousin ever! Anyways i was down in the dining room eating when I heard some very muffled yells, so i came up here to investigate and well you know the rest.”

Robin tried to remain calm. None of that was very helpful. Not at all. But there must be a way to contact them. He then remembered he had his communicator on him, duh this was gonna be so easy. Almost nothing on earth could block it’s signal. He pulled it out and started a call with Batman. Only to see static on the screen and hear white noise out of the speakers. He frowned at it and banged it against his hand, hopeing that it would fix the problem, but no dice.

“Crap.”

Kid Devil got his head out from under the bed, “What now?”

“Batman is somewhere really bad, i can’t get in contact with him.” He waved around the communicator to make sure Kid Devil saw it.

He could see both Kid Devil’s and that Zach kids hopes dashed in one sentence. They had probably, along with him, been hoping that this would something really easy to clear up and they could just go raid the vending machine while waiting for the adults to get back. But instead they kinda needed to figure out where they had gone, three kids, one of whom seemed like a civilian wasn’t much backup but they were the only three that would notice this for a while.

Zach started to pace, a frazzled, almost panicked expression on his face. Meanwhile Kid Devil sat down on the platform area the jacuzzi was in, seemingly trying to think of what to do. Robin just leaned on the wall, going through what plans Batman had made for situations like this.

If he were in Gotham he was suppose to be contacting Alfred, The Commissioner, or Barbara at the moment. But he wasn’t so he mentally moved on to the next plan. If in Metropolis- no that didn’t help either, he was in LA, was there a LA plan? Thinking about it for a moment, really trying to scrub through all the paranoid planning Bruce did, nope. There was nothing for LA. So it was time to fall back on to the specialized situations plans, the one most relevant seemed like it’d be the magic one…. But the plan there was to contact Zatanna and follow her lead and she was one of the missing people.

“What the heck do we do?!” Zach pulled at his hair, not hard enough for any to come out. 

Kid Devil shrugged, not that Zach noticed that as he turned to Robin pointing his finger, “You! You’re the sidekick to freaking Batman! What do we do?!” Clearly this guy wasn’t used to stressful situations.

Robin raised his hands trying to calm the fellow kid. “We.. Uhh…. Say do either of you two know any magic users?” He had to hope they could at least list one, for crying out loud Zach was Zatanna’s cousin, surely he’d know at least one. Hopefully one that’d be helpful, he didn’t want to get stuck calling the talking monkey.

Kid Devil shook his head. Unsurprisingly being the sidekick to a guy that was just stuck in a suit in the middle of LA wasn’t prime meeting magic people circumstances. “No one i know, Zach, buddy what about you?” Kid Devil was maybe too friendly for his own good, they had know Zach for a total of what? Five minutes and he was already calling him buddy, and not even in the tone that people use when the person isn’t actually their buddy.

He rubbed the nape of his neck as he answered. “Uhh, i do know Zee’s ex….. I even have his phone number,” 

Robin grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the face, “Perfect. What is his number?”

Zach took a moment to rattle off the number as Robin put in each number in the hotel landline left on the desk of the room. It was almost going to stop ringing by the time the person on the other end picked up.

“Who on ‘earth is ‘this? And how’d ‘ya get this number?” He spoke with a strong scouse accent, and in an annoyed tone.

“Robin, Zatanna’s younger cousin gave me the number.” He stated it matter of factly, hiding the nerves that were twisting in him as each minute passed, what if something awful had happened. What if they were all overreacting and the three would be back once this call was done. Either idea terrified him, just for completely different reasons.

“Ah the Bat’s sidekick, now why ‘in hell are ‘ya calling me? And also why ‘ya ‘round Zach, the kid doesn’t get out much.”

Robin played with the cord as he explained, “Well you see… Uh, Batman was meeting up with Zatanna and Blue Devil in Zatanna’s hotel room while me and Kid Devil were off with each other, we came back and they were gone, and there’s scorch marks on the floor and smells like someone threw down some gunpowder poppers on the floor. Uh as for Zach he was getting babysat so was in the hotel.”

“Hmm,” He paused for a moment before seemly rifling through some papers, what they had on them Robin could only guess, “Ah shit, the smell you're describing is brimstone, one of ‘the telltale signs ‘of a demon. Where’d ‘ya say this hotel room was again?”

He hadn't even asked in the first place but Robin didn’t mention that as he detailed both the address and the room number.

“Alright, ‘hold tight i’ll be ‘there in a few,” The phone clicked off, he just hung up.

Kid Devil looked like he was about to burst with anticipation, “So what’d he say?!”

“He said he’ll be here soon, i’m not exactly sure how he plans on getting here so quick but he said to just hold tight.”

Zach shrugged, “Well if he’s magic like how he says he is he’ll just.. Like appear or something.”

Kid Devil raised an eyebrow, “Wait, ‘like how he says he is’?”

Zach shrugged, again. He was not very sure of much was he? “I mean i’ve never seen him do magic,”

Robin blinked a couple times, “Wait….. Do you not know about.. Ya know?” Anyone with some knowledge about the magic community, including Jason who only overheard stuff, knew that Zatanna’s most notable ex was John Constantine, and that he was magic as fuck. Not that anyone would say the second thing in front of him, they thought he hadn't heard even worse than that.

Zach shook his head, “What are you talking about…?”

Kid Devil piped up, “Your cousin actually has magic and so does her ex.”

Zach took a moment to process it, “I knew it! There is no way you could fit so much stuff in a hat otherwise, plus those sparkles she can make seemed way too shiny, and-” he continued to list things to himself that now made a lot more sense, it seemed like he was more convincing himself he should have figured it out sooner than that he was listing reasons he already figured it out.

Kid Devil came over and stood next to Robin. Both of them watching Zach pace and continue on to no one in particular. Kid Devil turned to Robin, “So we just sit here and wait?”

Robin turned to him and nodded. “Yup, sit and wait.”

“It kinda makes me feel useless, I feel like we should be looking for clues, putting them all together, bursting in last moment and rescuing our mentors plus Zach’s cuz, and instead we’re what? Waiting for another adult to show up and probably take the problem right out of our hands?”

“I feel you, but i mean we don’t know anything about magic. And that seems to be the problem, I've got no idea what magical causes there are for a brimstone smell and I don't know where to start with this! Like agreed it’d be awesome if we could burst in and help! But I don't think today can be one of those days, I don't think whatever this is is something we’re ready to deal with. Plus I don't think we should leave Zach over there alone in case something dangerous is around.” It sucked to have to be the mature one but he was used to it, he used to give advice to some of the other street kids and now he was Batman’s sidekick, other young heroes would listen to him.

Kid Devil sighed, “I get that, still feel kinda useless.”

Robin patted him on the shoulder, “Honestly, same, I'm Robin and i feel like i can’t do anything.”

“Misery loves company they say, i guess that also rings true for other bad emotions.”

“From my experience i can confirm.”

The background chatter of Zach talking to himself suddenly stopped as he turned to the other two boys. “Are you two even hearing what i’m saying?”

“Ehh i think we both started tuning it out when you got to the part about sparkles, sorry.” Robin didn’t even think the guy had been expecting the both of them to listen to any of that.

Kid Devil shook his head with a guilty look on his face.

Zach waved his hands dismissively, “It’s fine, i think i got on a tangent there didn’t i?”

Kid Devil and Robin nodded at the same time. “Yeah you did,” Robin confirmed.

“I just start talking then i can’t stop till i’m done what i’m saying, it didn’t annoy you two did it?” He rubbed his arms as his eyes wandered to the floor. 

Kid Devil immediately answered. “No! I actually get that sometimes too, though usually when i’m talking about movies or movie making.”

There was a small smile on Zach’s face. “Heh, I didn't think anyone else did that.”

So they loitered around the hotel room for 15 minutes, most of which were spent watching Kid Devil trying to find a good movie on the TV and sharing fun facts about a couple of the ones they didn’t pick off the TV guide. Then the sound of knuckles against the wooden door could be heard over the action flick the three had settled on.

Robin went to the door and checked through the peephole before opening it, “Hey does your cousins ex looks like a private investigator in need of better pay?”

“Yeah that would be him alright.”

He opened the door to only be hit with the smell of strong booze and smokes, the smell seemed like it cling on to this man like a toddler to a parent in the supermarket. He held himself with confidence though, his hands in his pockets and an expression that bordered on unhappy but didn’t tip toe over the line.

“So what do ‘ya guys already know?” He went to reach for a smoke but everyone shot him a look and he seemed to then remember both that he couldn’t smoke in a hotel and that the room was full of kids.

“Zach heard some noises, and basically all the stuff you can figure out by looking around the room. Also there is nothing under the bed.”

John approached the bed where Zach was sitting on the edge of. “So what’d you ‘hear, Zach?”

“Well i was down in the dining room so i-”

John cut him off. “You ‘were in the dining room?”

Zach nodded.

“The one down four floors?”

Zach nodded again.

“Alright there’s no way ‘ya would have heard much of ‘anything from down there unless Zee used some magic to try and tell ‘ya something, continue on.”

“Like I was saying I was down in the dining hall eating some brownies when i heard very muffled shouting, it sounded like two men and Zee. I got up here as fast as I could but no one was here when I got the door open…”

“Alright, and could you make out ‘any of the words ‘anyone was saying?”

Zach thought hard for a moment before answering. “I think I heard something about Wrath?” 

John mulled the word over, “Wrath, wrath, hmm there’s gotta be someth- Ah! I ‘know i think ‘ya heard Rath.”

“Yeah that was it! You have to admit it does sound a lot like Wrath…”

“Who’s Rath?” Kid Devil asked.

John shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he began to explain. “He’s a demon. ‘One of the demons ‘three, three demon brothers that cause a lot ‘o problems for people. Two of ‘em already are banished to hell, ‘hopefully for good. But Rath, the bugger is still on the loose. Not for much longer if me ‘and Zee got anything to say about it, though.” He started to march out of the room.

Kid Devil half raised his hand, “What do we do since you’re leaving?”

John paused his march for a moment and shrugged, “Keep ‘yourselves busy ‘and stay in the hotel.” He then exited through the door before anyone could ask for any more specific rules.

Kid Devil turned to Zach, “Is he always so…. You know.”

Zach nodded. “Yeah just about, he was a little nicer and put together when I was younger but he’s let himself go.”

Robin interrupted the two of them. “Hey guys, tell me, what just happened.” A mischievous smile was barely being contained as he asked.

“John just left us alone and told us to stay in the hotel?”

The grin crept onto his face. “Exactly, we my friends, have been left with no supervision in a hotel. And guess what i’ve got?”

Both Zach and Kid Devil looked upon him like he was some sort of great leader, paving a new path as they realized what he just said was true. They did just get left with no supervision. “What?” The both asked.

Robin rifled through his belt, where oh where was it? There it was! He pulled out, the batcredit card and held it up ala an item in the legend of zelda.

Zach burst out laughing meanwhile Kid Devil looked confused, “Why on earth do you have that? Why does  _ Batman  _ have one of those?”

Robin shrugged, “Sometimes we have to pay for stuff, and it’d really ruin the whole secret identity thing to whip out a checkbook and write down his name on it or pull out his other credit card with his name clear to see. Plus i can use this without anyone raising an eyebrow! At least if I'm in costume, I don't think I'd get away with it in my civilian identity.”

Zach continued to laugh in the background while Kid Devil replied. “Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense, still pretty silly.”

“Agreed.” He knew all the practical reasons behind it but pulling out a credit card with a bat slapped on it to make it bat themed so it’d match everything else did feel ridiculous.

“Say, you haven’t actually told me your name, can i ask what it is?”

“Nope, sorry. Bat’s is really strict on that, hell Nightwing couldn’t tell the teen titans for the longest time what his name was and in fact the only reason they know is cause he broke the rules and told them.” He did wish he could tell Kid Devil, trying to be friends with someone but not being able to tell them his name felt weird.

He looked disappointed for a moment before moving on. “Eh i get it. I’m Eddie by the way!” The name seemed to suit him, he just kinda gave off ‘Eddie’ vibes, though the idea that certain people seemed like a certain name would fit them was kinda ridiculous. By that logic he probably go by the name Hunter or Jaxon.

Zach raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget I'm standing right here?”

Eddie shook his head, “Nope! It’s just we’re a little more lax about idenites here, if someone really wanted they could do some googling about Blue Devil and probably end up with my address and what school i go to. Besides there are a lot of Eddie’s in LA, if you aren’t looking into Blue Devil you aren’t going to find me with only that information. Also i trust you’ll be keeping all of this to yourself, right?”

Robin raised an eyebrow and his mouth dropped a little, “It’s  _ that _ easy to find out who you are?”

“Blue Devil isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows. Heck he was front page when the suit got stuck to him!”

Zach stared off for a moment, seeming to be in a little shock. “Yeah i won’t mention this, i mean i don’t really even know who i’d tell. My parents probably just go ‘that’s nice Zach, now go away’ and my friends would think i was lying.”

“Really?” Those seemed like some pretty shitty friends and dismissive parents to him. But it wasn’t like he was the expert on either, he barely had any friends and his parents were, gone too soon to be much of anything, dependent on him, or actually interested in him and what he was doing.

“Probably, i mean i don’t know for sure and i’m not going to test it.” 

Robin thought about it for a moment. Batman would be so mad if he ever found out, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him and it wasn’t like either of these two would tell anyone. “You guys can call me Jason, just don’t do it front of Batman. If he found out i told you two he might rethink his golden rule.”

Eddie giggled, “Alright, I'll make sure not to do that Jason.”

“Also don’t say it in front of anyone else for that matter.” He did have to be careful, there were a lot of Jason’s in Gotham city, including the highly public Jason Todd adopted son of billionaire Bruce Wayne, came from the streets. If anyone thought there might be connection that could spell so much trouble. Hell he realized he just handed over the tools to figure it out to Eddie since he already mentioned he grew up on the streets. It would take a leap of logic but it could happen.

“So basically it stays in this room and this room alone?” Zach said.

“Yup.”

Zach started pacing rubbing his hands together, “So back on the topic that we’ve been left without supervision, what do you two think we should do?”

“It might be fun to ride on the cleaning cart…. Let’s just make sure it’s not one in use, i don’t want to make the cleaners day even shitter than it already probably is.” Only after he was done his sentence did he realized he said shit in front of the other two. He had been trying to not swear in front of people but he grew up in crime alley, he had heard much stronger language almost everyday.

Eddie took a pause before speaking, “Yeah that’d be a lot of fun!”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” 

The three headed out of the hotel room back into the hallway. The first cleaning cart they came across was in front of a room with the door left ajar, clearly in use. After a bit of sighing and Jason pulling Zach away from the cart they found another one. No cleaner in sight or clues that they’d be back anytime soon. They pushed it away from where they found it and took it down to the third floor at the end of the hall, no one would catch them there.

“So who goes where?” Zach asked staring at it.

“Zach you get to sit on the surface of it, Eddie you stand on the little edge on the front end and hold on for dear life, and i’ll stand on the back bit that sticks out and push.”

“Alright!”

They all got in their specified locations and Jason started to use his foot to push the cart, at first it was going slow. Though given how excited all of them looked, they might as well been nascar drivers. Then a little faster, Eddie gripped on to the cart a lot tighter and Jason followed suit, he didn’t really want to fall off. 

“Faster!” Zach demanded, a grin on his face.

Eddie and Jason exchanged a look, on the one hand, neither of them wanted to get hurt and crashing into the door to the stairwell would hurt a lot. But on the other hand, it’d be really fun. But before either of them could decide if the reward outweighed the risks they could hear what was but a faint whisper, “Retsaf.”

The cart was now really picking up speed. Jason pulled his foot from the ground quickly as this thing did not need anymore speed than it already had. They were now barreling down the hallway, headed straight for the door to the stairwell. And worse yet Jason just remember that it's a push door, not a pull one.

“Weee!” At least Eddie was still having fun.

“Woo!” Zach also seemed to not yet realize the very present danger they were in.

“We’re headed straight for the stairs!” Jason panickedly yelled.

Their yells of glee quickly turned to screams of fear as they crashed through the door, skidded on the edge of the stairs, Eddie jumped off and landed on the landing for the third floor and then the cart went straight into the wall before the cart finally landed on it’s side, the wheels still spinning. 

Jason could only see the roof above him as his senses processed what just happened and subsequently wanted to throw up. He felt a blunt pain where he had landed, nothing too bad but just enough to be unpleasant. Note to self, don’t ever do that again. He could hear Zach groaning a couple feet away from him, that was good as it meant he didn’t hit his head hard.

They both then could hear Eddie shout down at them, “Are you two okay!”

Jason weakly held a thumb up and shouted back, “I think!”

He could hear Zach pull himself off the ground and using the wall to support himself as he got up. “Speak for yourself, i’m not exactly used to getting banged around like that.”

Jason closed his eyes and just let himself focus on breathing for a moment. He could hear someone was using the stairs and frankly he had no idea if they were going up or down. Though judging by how light the steps were and the fact that Eddie nor Zach were talking it was one of them.

“Want a hand up?” Eddie asked. Jason opened one of his eyes to see Eddie crouching over him, a hand extended.

“Sure.” Jason got up with Eddie’s help.

“Let’s head back to the room.” Robin suggested.

“Yeah before anyone gets to the scene of our crime.” Zach dryly added.

The three rushed back up to Zatanna’s room. It was as empty as they had left it. All three of them had about the same idea as each other as they all rushed on to the soft bed. Much nicer to lie on than the scratchy carpet the stairwell had.

Jason still felt a dull pain in his torso where he had crashed against the handlebar of the cart. His costume didn’t let him easily check it but he was pretty sure a bruise had formed. “Hey does the mini fridge have anything really cold in it? I think i got bruised from that.”

Zach got up and checked, and then turned back to the bed and shook his head. “Not on hand, unless you want some barely cold vodka that Zee put in here before I had to leave the room, but I can order some room service and ask for an ice bucket.”

“Please do that.”

Once the room service arrived Zach got the bucket from them out in the hall so they wouldn’t notice how torn up the hotel room itself was. He then came back in and set the bucket down on the desk as he went and grabbed three towels from the bathroom, he set those down on the ground then dumped the ice on them and spread it out evenly between the three, he then bundled the towel and twisted the end till it wouldn’t just come apart if you let it go for half a second. He handed one over to Jason who immediately stuck it on top on where his bruise was, then one to Eddie who rubbed it over where he had got some scrapes, and kept one for himself that he was just keeping in his hands.

They sat like that and chatted for about five minutes before Zach started eyeing the bucket.

“What are you thinking?” Jason asked, his hair dangling off the bed with the rest of his head. 

“I just remembered a cool trick i saw down in the dining room…”

Eddie who was lying belly first like how you’d see a sleepover in a girls magazine, looked interested. “Ooo, what sort of trick?”

“You get some strong alcohol, and you set it on fire.” The way he said it made it sound really cool, though it was a deceptively simple trick. “You know I could probably show you two if you guys wanted.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that it’d be safe?”

“I’ll do it in the metal bucket and i’ll even do it on the edge of the jacuzzi so if it gets out of control we can just push it in there!”

“Okay..” He was a little apprehensive about the idea but as long as they did it safely. And besides it’d be fun to see.

Zach grabbed the bucket, then the vodka out of the fridge and poured it in. He then looked around for a moment for something to set it on fire with. Jason tossed him a lighter with an extendable metal bit where the fire came out. He extended it and lit it and brought it to the vodka and…

It lit in blue flames! Eddie enthusiastically clapped and Jason had to admit he was impressed. Zach took a small bow “Ta dah!”

“That is so cool! How long will it stay on fire?”

Zach looked like he had a sudden realization, the look you get when a person realizes that they did leave the stove on. “Uhh, i’m not sure. The people in the bar would just blow it out but i don’t think we can do that…”

Jason sat up on the bed to get a better look and also so blood would stop rushing to his head. “Alright let’s figure this out, we’ve got a bucket full of vodka that’s on fire… A thin spread of the right kind of alcohol will stay burning for only a minute or so but you poured the whole bottle in so-”

“Why do you know how long alcohol burns?” Zach asked

“Some idiot thought it was a good idea to throw a molotov cocktail at a police car and completely missed and got the sidewalk instead.”

“You know, stuff like that makes me glad i don’t live in Gotham.”

“Hey! Gotham is the best, it’s just got a couple neighborhoods where you gotta watch out a little.” Jason had his own problems with the city but he was a Gotham boy through and through, born and raised.

“Still i think i like New York better.”

“Anyways i think the fire should burn out in about… 8 minutes..” He wasn’t a hundred percent sure his math was right but he was pretty sure.

“Great..” From the way it sounded Zach did not think it was, “Great” but wasn’t going to raise any complaints.

“So while we wait for that to burn out could we do something remotely safe?” Eddie asked.

Jason crossed his arms. “Like what?”

“Hmm, I don't know. Maybe make a blanket fort?”

“If we’re going to do that we’ll need more blankets.” Zach pointed out.

“I think I can do that.” A devilish grin spread across his face.

Jason went alone, the other two were getting chairs, rope, and tape. While he was heading to the cleaning room. The lock on the door wasn’t much to contend with, especially since he got given real lock picks, not like the crappy ones he got used to on the street. He grabbed a couple of the clean ones, and avoided the ones that still needed cleaning. 

They all met back up and started construction, Zach was in charge of direction as he had the most practice out of the three of them, meanwhile Eddie was in charge of getting the blankets where they were supposed to be, and Jason was put to tying all of it down and making sure it stayed together since he was the best knot tier out of them.

Once they were done Zach made some microwave popcorn while Eddie and Jason got comfortable. Eddie didn’t really seem to have much of an idea of personal space but Jason couldn’t say it bothered him that much.

Zach crouched down to climb in with the bag of popcorn, “Hey move over a little, you two are hogging all the space!”

Jason shuffled over to the side letting Zach slip into the majestic blanket fort they had made. Eddie grabbed some of the popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth.

They had just started chatting when they could hear the door open and the sound of several exhausted adults mummering at each other about demons and whether or not it was too nice to just seal them in hell. Then they suddenly stopped for a reason the three kids, frozen from surprise could see.

“Why the  _ hell  _ is there an ice bucket on fire next to the jacuzzi?!” Zatanna loudly asked.

“I was going to ask where they got all those blankets from.” Blue Devil added.

“Are you three why there’s a cleaning cart crashed in the stairwell?” Batman asked.

John stayed uncomfortably quiet.

Meanwhile the three of them looked at each other, slight terror in each of their eyes. Then they all clambered over each other and out of the blanket fort.

Zach began the explanation. “I wanted to show these two a trick I saw down in the dining room, and I guess it hasn’t burnt out yet.” He shrugged.

“As for the blankets we got them from the cleaning room, well robin did, me and Zach were getting the other stuff together!” Eddie cheerfully added

“We made sure it wasn’t a cart that was being used, besides we can pay for any damages done and leave a generous tip while we’re at it.” Jason tried to finish.

“How did it happen though?” Batman asked.

“Zach wanted to go faster, and we didn’t realize the door was a push one till it was way too late…”

Batman covered his face with his hand and shook his head disapprovingly. Though Jason could imagine there was a small smile on his face under his hand.

Zatanna slowly turned to John, giving him the sink eye. “John.”

“‘Yeah?”

“Why’d you leave these three unsupervised?”

“Well ‘lov, it’s not like ‘I've got babysitters in LA ‘already plugged into ‘my phone.”

“You could have call Mikey! And don’t tell me you don’t have his number, i know you sometimes ask him to send you pictures of me.”

“Look I didn't ‘think of it!”

The two continued on while Batman and Blue Devil awkwardly tried to give them their distance and the ice bucket finally burnt out in the background.

Eddie turned to Jason. “This has been a whole load of fun!”

Jason smiled at him, “Yeah it has.”

“Hey how about i give you my address and we can send each other letters!”

“Why not just exchange our phone numbers?”

“I mean we can do that too! It’s just fun to use out of date stuff, my aunt still uses vinyl cause of that reason.”

“Alright sure.”

They exchanged both their numbers and mailing addresses, and in doing that they both knew that it would definitely let the other one figure out who they were, but neither were all that worried about it. Jason was sure Eddie wouldn’t tell anyone.

Soon enough Robin and Batman had to leave and go back to Gotham. Though Robin got himself dropped off in the city instead of going straight to the cave, he needed to go get some stamps.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed please do leave a comment! it can be as simple as a <3, it really helps my motivation.


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